PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Athletics has reached an agreement with Independence Media to air five Missouri Valley Conference matches in both soccer and volleyball on ESPN 96.5 FM, according to an announcement Thursday afternoon by Bradley Associate Athletic Director of Communications Bobby Parker. The first of the 10 broadcasts is slated for this Saturday night when the Bradley Volleyball visits Drake.
"We are making a concentrated effort to improve the exposure for all of our teams this year and this opportunity with ESPN Radio is the first step in that direction," said Parker. "The majority of the 10 games in this agreement are on the road, so I think this provides a great opportunity to bring that action back to our fans in Peoria."
Saturday's volleyball game will air on 96.5 FM ESPN Radio with Bradley alum Brian Bedo ('07) calling the action courtside from the Drake Knapp Center. The pre-game show will start at 6:50 p.m. with the first serve scheduled for 7 p.m.
The first soccer broadcast will be the Braves Missouri Valley Conference opener at nationally-ranked Creighton on Wednesday, Sept. 30. The soccer broadcasts also include the Oct. 18 game at Eastern Illinois, the Oct. 21 home game against Creighton and road tilts at Drake (Oct. 28) and at Evansville (Nov. 7).
The volleyball schedule features five of the Braves' nine Missouri Valley Conference road dates, beginning with Saturday's contest at Drake. Included in the volleyball broadcast schedule are the Oct. 10 game at Indiana State, the Oct. 24 game at Evansville and both matches of the Wichita State (Oct. 13) and Missouri State (Oct. 14) road swing.
"We are excited about some other technology advances we are making in our streaming offerings, as well as our partnership with the newly-formed Sports Communications academic program," added Parker. "I think our fans outside of Central Illinois will begin to see some tremendous enhancements to our streaming events in the very near future."
In partnership with the Communications department, the Bradley Sports Information Office has acquired several new pieces of broadcast and internet streaming equipment, most notably a Newtek Tricaster system that allows Bradley students to produce three-camera shoots and insert graphics into the video streams of Bradley Athletics home events on the department's official website, www.BradleyBraves.com. The students utilized the new equipment during Tuesday night's video stream of the Bradley volleyball match versus Western Illinois and will introduce the equipment to the soccer streams Sept. 25 when the Braves return home to host Central Arkansas.
